Green Eyed Demons
by Caitlynn Sidhe
Summary: Picking up where Winter Soldier left off in the cemetery. Features Cap, Falcon and Widow in the main focus to start, however everybody else will come in in a few chapters, Will head into AU territory for Age of Ultron.
1. Chapter 1

It was never going to be easy. Shutting down the planet's most influential government organisation was always going to leave loose ends. Shutting down S.H.I.E.L.D was only the beginning. Natasha Romanoff knew this when she chose to back the Captain's plan, and it was only a matter of time before those loose ends came around to tear up the fabric of their world. But it wouldn't be today, no, today is the time for a different story, one started long before the first helicarrier was even a thought in Howard Stark's head.

* * *

The four allies parted ways in that cemetery, each with their own agenda, each with their own hidden guilt to resolve, and each woefully unaware of the man watching them from afar. Holed up in a small hotel room some blocks away, he sits, watching them on the monitors spread out in front of him, as they move he relays their actions into the microphone hooked on his ear.

"Bravo this is Mike Alpha, Whiskey is on the move, heading to the north gate. Foxtrot Alpha is nearing the west gate, Charlie and Foxtrot Bravo are heading south."

"Mike Alpha this is Bravo, message received, moving to intercept Whiskey." A woman's voice replies, on the camera she is leaning against one of the boundary walls, blond hair falling just so, in a way that the camera could not see her face, picking herself off of the wall she begins a casual pace towards the gate.

"Roger, Mike Delta, what's your status?"

"Heading south to drop the package, Charlie and Foxtrot Bravo nearly there." An Asian man replies into a cellphone, walking out of an alley not a block from the cemetery. Ink blue suit and cropped hair, along with a brown leather briefcase making him just another business man walking down the road.

"Alright, Mikes Bravo and Charlie will rendezvous with us at the extraction point, radio silence from here on out. Mike Alpha over and out."

"Mike Delta, over and out."

"Bravo, over and out."

* * *

And as the comms clicked off, each agent spings into action.

The 'business man' speeds up ever so slightly as he tucks away his phone into his pocket, eyes flicking to the gate every few seconds as the distance closed, and as the Captain and the Falcon parted from the hallowed grounds, he begins to sprint straight for them, barrelling into Rogers, he forces the briefcase into his hands. Not even stopping for a second, he pushes on and rounds the corner, the roar of an engine is heard and seconds later, a green sedan rushes out, barrelling past at most definitely not legal speeds.

The woman watches as the Black Widow enters a sleek black car and drives away, waiting not 10 seconds before she starts the engine of her own vehicle, a lightning yellow motorcycle with twin snakes painted on the sides. Combined with the emerald green helmet, this was not a tail that would withstand much scrutiny, but seeing as it wasn't designed to...

Satisfied, the man in the room enters a code into the computer's root section, picked up the olive coloured dufflebag off of the unused bed and walked away, leaving the now failing computers in the mouldy old room, the flimsy 'do not disturb' sign acting as the only barrier between them and discovery.

* * *

Rogers and Wilson both take a second to register what had happened, but it is not as if they simply stood and watched while the clearly _not actually a business man_ ran away, and to their defence, Rogers did reach the corner by the time the car rushed past, but even with his super-human speed, it wasn't quite enough to catch the man.

"The hell was that?" Wilson demands at the fleeing vehicle. Turning back he sees Rogers opening the briefcase "Whoa, hold on a sec there cap, we don't know that's not a bomb-" he says too late as the captain has already opened both latches. "Or not" he amends as the now open briefcase has clearly not detonated.

Rogers on the other hand, looked like he was about to drop the briefcase from shock.

/_Herr Rogers,_

_I thought you might want this, for as good as Natalia's information is, those boys she got it from were a bit too scared of 'big brother' Red Room to give her the whole picture.  
Fortunately for you, I scare them just a bit more._

_Good luck finding your - apparently not quite so dead - dead friend._

_\- K. Schrödinger._

_P.S. Do tell Herr Fury that Irae Mishkazé says hello./_

The note lay at the very top of the papers inside, neatly scrawled by hand, it was pinned to a tattered drawing of stone bunkers sunken in a hillside.

"Who's Schrödinger?"

"A German soldier I met back in the war, he was a saboteur, killed off nearly half of his unit the first time we met, after that, he just handed us a folder of intel he'd been gathering and told us to knock him out before the reinforcements showed up"

"Guess they never found out, since he's still alive and all."

"He was shot in the head, three weeks before I went down."

...

...

"You know, I think I'm liking my odds of getting through whatever we end up facing" Wilson declares, earning a raised eyebrow from Rogers at his out of the blue comment. "No really" He defends "Nobody who works with you seems to actually stay dead"

* * *

Romanoff notices the woman not three blocks later. She does not immediately assume that it is a tail due to the bright nature of her pursuer, but after the woman mimics every turn she makes, down every backstreet and mainstreet there is no longer any doubt, she soon stops at a red light and rolls down the window, drawing her gun on the woman as she pulls up alongside her.

"Who are you, and why are you following me?" She asks calmly keeping her eyes on the road ahead.

"My name is Vasilia Runov, and it is my employers who would like to speak with you." the woman replies, flicking up the visor of the helmet so that her voice could carry.

"And if I don't want to speak to them?" Her eyes dart towards Runov, taking in what little could be seen of the face, namely, the amber coloured slit-pupil eyes that turned to meet her own.

"Then, Ms Romanov, this is where we part. However, if you wish to speak with them, then follow me." Runov states as the light flickers green, revving the engine and speeding forward, she leaves the Widow to make her choice.

* * *

The woman at the hotel desk on the other hand, was far too absorbed in trying to get a customer to pay that little bit extra for 'breakfast inclusion', to consciously notice the man from the room as he left through the front door.

* * *

**_Just for clarification (Though you probably figured it out)  
Charlie = the Captain  
Foxtrot Alpha = Fury  
Foxtrot Bravo = Falcon (Sam)  
Whiskey = Black Widow_**

**_These were all done with the standard NATO phonetic alphabet._**

**_Standard disclaimer: I don't own the rights to any of Marvel's characters, I earn no money from this so there is no breach of copyright anyway (so far as I know). My characters however _****do_ belong to me, anyone who wants to use them, can so long as they are given permission by me first._**


	2. Chapter 2

As she watched the woman Vasilia Runov drive away, Natasha made her decision, the reason S.H.I.E.L.D fell was because there were too many secrets, too much was unknown by the people who needed to know it the most. If these people turned out to be the enemy, then she had no problems with taking them down just like any other, but if they were allies with valuable information, then that was a risk she would have to take.

As she followed Runov out of the city, she began to dial Rogers, yes she was taking a risk to follow the woman, but she hadn't lived as long as she had in her line of work because she was stupid with her risks, following a stranger to meet a group of strangers was not something one normally does, and they certainly don't do it without letting someone know it was going to happen. He picked up on the last ring.

"Rogers" She breathes a sigh of relief when he answers, her team was fine.

"Steve, did anything happen to you and Sam after I left?" She is met with silence for a few seconds, giving her the answer before he even had the chance to speak.

"How did you know?" He says slowly, confused.

"That's a yes then, what happened?" She sets the phone on the dash as Runov leads her into a residential area full of those oh so cherished white-picket-fences.

"Some guy just barrelled through us, dumped a briefcase full of papers in my hands and sped off. Most of it's not in English, a lot of it looks encrypted and there's a memory stick in here. Natasha, what happened to you?" Now he's worried about her. She might think it sweet if his concern didn't imply that she may have come out of it worse for wear.

"Oh you know, had someone tailing me, spoke to them, they have a boss, bosses actually, apparently they want to meet." She sticks with the casual tone as she reaches into the glove compartment for her bracelets, each filled to the maximum capacity with wires, toxic spray and widow bites.

"And you're just going?" He's confused "What if they're Hydra?" But he has a good point.

"Then I'll kill them. If I don't contact you within one hour, call Stark and get him to track my cell." Assuming they're actually dumb enough not to ditch it.

"Natasha, are you sure about this?" Again with the worry, so she nearly stopped her heart with her own bite, _he's _the one who fell out of a Helicarrier and nearly drowned in the river.

"You worry too much Rogers, I'll be fine. If these people are on our side then we need the allies, if they're not, then we have a better picture of the enemy."

"One hour Natasha, don't be late." He requests just before she hangs up.

* * *

Not two blocks later Runov turns into a driveway. It's attached to a rather inconspicuous building; a suburban house is not normally what one expects when it comes to shady dealings with mystery bosses. One's mind tends to turn to abandoned structures in the middle of nowhere, or small cafes with no cameras to catch their faces, not suburbia with white washed walls and slate tiled roofs. Natasha turns in after her, tucking a spare gun into the small of her back as she follows Runov into the unlocked house. Sitting at a large table are two people, a man and a woman.

"Yoma, SohVasi, ayed karné meh kora?" The woman spoke first, teasing Runov in a language Natasha did not recognise. Runov just rolls her eyes and walks back out the door with a small gesture of good luck for Natasha, the click of the lock and roar of an engine mark her exit.

The woman was small, with her hair done like someone had taken a chainsaw to it, and clothes scattered with numerous burn holes and grease stains, the neck wide enough to reveal the circular tattoo of symbols on her collarbone and the gauze wrapped tight around most of her torso.

"Speak English Al, we're here to talk _with_ Ms Romanov, that requires a common language." The man reprimands her; he is much larger than his female counterpart, though perhaps that is part of why she seems so small, maintaining a strict contrast wore a white dress shirt, snow pale hair neatly cropped just above his shoulders, nearly blank red eyes finished his altogether unnerving ensemble. "Coffee?"

"No thank you"

"Good choice, it tastes like shit." Al remarks with a smirk and gestures to the two free chairs "Take a seat, take a seat, the chairs don't bite."

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, you know who I am, but it seems that I don't know you." Taking Al's suggestion she pulls out the offered seat across from the woman, turning her head ever so slightly so that she can see the owner of the footsteps approaching from behind.

"The post-apocalyptic hobo is Allison, the emotionally constipated albino is Irael, and my name is Emil." A dark-skinned man says with a lazy grin, pulling out the chair to Natasha's left and spinning it to sit with his chest against the backing "Now you know" He finishes with a flourish of his arms.

"Your names, or at least what you claim your names are, but that doesn't tell me who you are, or what you want." Clearly she is nonplussed by the new man.

"There's a Hydra base that we need to _retrieve_ some things from." Irael interjects "The mission will require at least two infiltrators to get inside undetected, sabotage some key components to enable a strike team to follow through, pick up the packages and get out, preferably all alive."

"And you can't get your own operatives to do it? You sent what is at least a three-man team just to pass on a message, surely if you can waste resources on us then you have plenty to go around." Natasha retorts,

"Well with all that intel you leaked, we've been spread rather thin trying to extract some of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s undercover assets, with their identities on the web, it is only a matter of time before someone realizes who they are, if they hadn't already removed themselves, we give them a hand."

"But you still have other operatives available."

"One of the 'packages' we need collected is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent." Irael interjects, bringing the subject back to the job "From what we know of him, he's not going to cooperate with some random strike team who isn't even S.H.I.E.L.D. Best case scenario, he takes off with the other packages."

"And the worst case?"

"He shoots them all in the back once he's out, or at least tries to." Emil responds "We need someone he can trust to be in the group that retrieves them."

"And since I've been all over the news as part of the group that's exposed Hydra's subterfuge you think he'll automatically trust me?"

"No Ms. Romanov, the reason we think he'll trust you, is because last I heard, you were his partner."

That was not what she expected. Yes, Natasha had known that Barton was on a mission, and she had known that it was going to be long-term, but she hadn't known that it was Hydra. Yes she had leaked the mainframe onto the internet, but she wasn't foolish enough not to delete some key items before that, including the surveillance footage from the very room she did it in. No point in saying that Fury was dead if the whole ordeal wound its way onto YouTube or something, rather counter-productive in her opinion, but she hadn't had a chance to check yet if Hawkeye's position had been leaked or not.

"You should know that a Widow has no partner"

"58 of 65 missions together, all successful. I think that sounds like a partner sweetheart." Al condescendingly remarks.

"And you think if Barton's involved you can just tell me to jump and I'll ask how high?" Natasha retorts, matching tone for tone.

"We aren't stupid Natalia, he may be incentive, but we're still going to pay you. $500,000 and access to all the intel we have or gather on Hydra, now and in the future."

A good deal by anyone's standards, half a million for one infiltration job, plus supposedly unlimited information on your personal target. But putting emphasis on the supposedly.

"How well can I trust your information."

"Better than you trusted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, we don't keep intel like that from our people, or our allies. You can't trust anybody if they won't trust you."

Natasha takes a minute to consider her options. Supposedly, if she says no, they'll let her walk away, and she probably could even if they didn't want her to. The men both only carried a few blades under their shirts, the woman was admittedly unknown, nothing on her torso, but she could have something on her back and waist, Natasha has 20 Bites, around 30 CC of acid spray and a full clip of ammo in the gun on her back, no one can walk away from a bullet to the head. But on the other hand... Intel on Hydra, the ensured safety of Barton, and half a million dollars to fund her own operations. Not that she wouldn't be able to get the information anyway, but if these people already have the network in place, why not take advantage of it, at least until she could arrange her own. But Barton on the other hand was not so easily replaced, he was a valuable asset, and a good man.

"Are you in?" Eyebrows raised, she wants her answer now.

"Who're the other operatives?" Natasha replies with a snake's smile.

"You've already met your fellow infiltrator Basilisk, and I believe you're friend Mr. Rogers has met Mike Delta, Kōri"

"The man who dropped off the briefcase."

"Correct, their actions were coordinated by Mike Alpha, Carlos, the current team leader, their team-mates are Mikes Bravo and Charlie, John and James."

"Mike?"

"They picked it, some kind of inside joke... I think." She doesn't sound entirely sure about her statement, but it is of little significance, a name is just a name, she knows that better than most.

"Maybe one day I'll find out." But in order for her to do that, then first "Where are they?"

"Vasilia went to meet them at one of their safe houses, 2200 19th street NW apartment 2C. They'll give you the mission brief, and whatever plan they've developed at this point."

"Then I'll see you when the job is done, make sure you hold up your end of the deal"

"Yaweh, ské miskera!"

"You're welcome." Natasha calls back over her shoulder

"Are you sure she doesn't know what I'm saying?" Al's question follows her out the door, but she doesn't hear the reply.

* * *

Ten minutes out from the building, Natasha dials Rogers again, after all she did promise to do so. He picks up on the first ring this time.

"Natashalie, how'd the meeting go." That, was not who she wanted to hear on the other end, when and why did Steve contact Stark, it hadn't even been forty minutes.

"Stark, what are you doing with Steve's phone?" He's annoying and he knows it, but they need focus, Tony Stark is not going to bring focus, weapons of awesome might and technologies beyond comprehension when he feels like it, but he is not a man of focus.

"I don't have Capsicle's phone, he does, I just hacked it." and prone to whims.

"Tony" Steve's admonishing voice filters through the speaker.

"So, what are the mystery 'employers' like?" Tony continues, too gleefully curious to feel guilty.

"Informal, well paying." Leave out the specifics, they barely made sense to begin with.

"What was the offer?" Note to self: do not feed Stark's curiosity

"Half a million and unlimited access to any and all the information on Hydra they can get their hands on. All for one extraction mission."

"One mission?" And there's Steve's skepticism, not surprising, it does seem like overkill for one mission.

"They need a team to remove some packages from a Hydra base, they want me on it."

"You have a picture of what this team is going to look like?"

"Four men, one woman other than me. You're not going to get much off of the names. John, James, Carlos and Kōri. The woman is Vasilia Runov."

"You get the names of their bosses?"

"You won't get much from Emil and Allison either. The third guy's got an odd one, it's pronounced Ee-ray-el, but I couldn't tell you how to spell it."

"Really, of all of them, you have one full name? One?" What, like they're real to begin with?

"I didn't ask, they didn't tell, they are also probably fake. They only offered that much so I could refer to them as something. Besides, I'm a bit more curious about the 'packages'." Air quotes because they obviously aren't just parcels.

"They give any indication of what they were?"

"One of them is Hawkeye, no word on the others though."

"Hawkeye is one of the 'packages'?" Looks like Steve figured out spoken air quotes "He knows these people?"

"No he doesn't, that's part of why they say need me. They think he's more likely to turn on the people they send in if he doesn't trust them."

"Well that's… possibly true. But really, half a million and unlimited intel for one mission, that you would probably do anyway? Are you sure this isn't a trap?" If she hadn't already met with the 'leaders' then she would be right beside him on that suspicion.

"If it was a trap then that meeting would have been the perfect place to spring it, gas, a bomb, a strike team. Hydra has already proven that they care little about the lives of own people, or about collateral damage. Besides, it's not that much if hiring me for one mission means that we take out Hydra for them, half a million isn't really that much."

"True."

"You manage to get something out of what Kōri gave you?"

"We're translating it right now. That guy's part of the team?"

"So maybe they're connected to the Schrödinger guy?" Tony inputs, clearly not enjoying being left out

"I'm guessing you don't mean the one with the cat?"

"A saboteur from the war, he was an odd person, but reliable when it came to information."

"You think he's working with these people."

"Well until today, I thought he was dead."

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know anyone who actually stays dead?"

"…" A resigned sigh filters through the speaker

"Contact me when you get something from that data, I'm going to be meeting the team."

"Yawe-" Stark's voice cuts off as Natasha snaps the phone

* * *

"Steve, you sure you trust this Schrödinger guy?" Tony continues after Natasha hangs up

"_If_ it's him, then yes, he was a good man, and he hated Hydra, if these people want to take Hydra down, he'd be helping them."

"If it's not him, who else would know to use the name?"

"I don't know, the only ones who knew were me and the commandos, but I can't see how it's him." He hopes it is him.

"You thought Barnes was dead."

"We never found Bucky's body Tony, we _buried_ Schrödinger."

"Pulse slowing drugs, illusion, life model decoy, body double, hell, with all the shit we've seen, why not throw reincarnation in there too." He's still a little sore about all the things that have suddenly shown how little he actually knows about their world.

"Life model decoys aren't a thing Tony, stop trying to make them one." The world is strange enough as it is.

* * *

**Things people say during this chapter…**

**'Yoma SohVasi' = Hello Vasi (Vasilia) 'Ayed karné meh kora?'= Found a friend?**

**'Yaweh' = Bye, 'ské miskera' = and thanks (Colloquial), formal of thank you = Mis ké ayed too. Literally translating as fortune for your deeds**

**This language does not actually exist, don't bother Google-ing it. If and when I use it again, I will either provide translations at the place it was written, or in a note section like I did here.**

**{30 CC}, CC is Centimetres cubed. 1 CC = 1 ml. However CC is the proper (read: scientific) way of measuring.**

**Also, Al isn't _that_ small, but a 5ft '4 next to a 6ft '6 is going to look pretty damn small.**


	3. Chapter 3

The 'safehouse' that the team was using, turned out to be less of a house, and more of an apartment, and a large one at that. 2C took up a quarter of the floor's space and overlooked the street on two sides. The door is unlocked when Natasha arrives, either they were careless or considerate, for her own safety she hope's it's the latter. A careless team on enemy grounds is a damn good way to get killed. As she enters the reception there's no one in sight, but she can hear people voices filtering through the walls.

"Half a mil!? I should have asked for that, hell I would have if I thought they would actually go with it." Not American, though the accent has taken up part of the twang. No this man is from the orient, eastern orient, maybe China, or Japan, Korea's a possibility but her gut says it's not likely.

"Seriously? You think the Iraes would pay you that? She's _the_ Black Widow, you think they're going to be anything less than generous with an operative like that?" This one's American, northern, west coast, not a city boy, but hasn't been back home for a while, at least not long enough to regain the local accent.

"You two need to calm down. They never said it was _American _dollars. They have fooled people with that before." Again with the American lilt, hints of what is maybe an Indian accent, though could be Pakistani.

"You mean us." Says… the same voice?

"That was _you_?" Vasilia's voice mocks the man/men(?)

"Just them. Kōri and I knew better. In their defence it was their first job, they weren't expecting a trick."

"And pray tell _how_ you knew better?" Natasha asks as she glides around the corner, getting her first view of the team, all of them were dressed casually with the exception of the Asian man sitting in the window well who had on a dress shirt and suit pants, definitely Kōri. The man who had just spoken was probably Carlos, tan skin and military cropped black hair, the identical men, twins, tan, brown hair, hazel eyes, one on a couch the other sitting at a computer, would then be John and James, one of those unfortunate gimmicks that their parents probably thought funny at the time, and they would explain why the two voices sounded the same.

"Because Jazz warned us beforehand." Kōri inserts.

"Jazz?" That's a new name, someone from a different team perhaps?

"Our leader." Or not, why isn't he here then, and why did Al say that Carlos was the leader.

"I thought you were the leader." nodding to her assumed 'Carlos'

"Acting leader, though now that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s down we might be getting him back." He became a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, interesting choice.

"You mean now that he's part of our extraction job." Kōri comments over an open folder, papers spread in the well at his side, photos, blueprints and profiles. Seeing them all facing him with either bemused or annoyed that he had opened the briefing without them. "What? They said no opening it until she got here, she's here, it's open, I'm reading it, Jasper Ko-Irae's one of the packs. Along with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s master archer... Wonder if they've had a shooting competition." He remarks idly as he reads through, dropping a paper to his side every few pages. Noticing Natasha's raised eyebrow he continues "He's from a family of gunslingers, they take their reputation relatively seriously." not what she had been wondering, but good to know nonetheless.

"Holy SHIT!" One of the twins exclaims, the one that was sitting at the computer has snatched some of the papers Kōri has already discarded.

"What is it?" his counterpart crosses the distance and plucks it from his brother's hands "Fuck! The Maximoff twins" he shouts, obviously displeased by this revelation. Though it is odd, why would they have accepted the mission before they even knew what it involved, they must really trust these 'ee- rays' she thinks, whilst assuming that an Irae is a term for 'boss' or something similar, especially since their team leader holds such a similar title. But who are these Maximoff people?

"Well I'll be damned, Al actually managed to find them. And apparently the glow stick of destiny… dibs!" Kōri declares,

"They're not going to let you keep a mind controlling scepter." Vasilia deadpans, though the fact should have been obvious.

"Yeah, they'll just hand it over to V and let her R&amp;D it."

"After all that's happened with it, you honestly think it's a good idea to keep it around?" Like she would let them keep it anyway, she doesn't know them and she sure as hell doesn't trust them quite yet.

"Gods no! that's why it's going for R&amp;D." Carlos seems honestly confused by her statement.

"Research and development?" Not exactly an uncommon term nowadays.

"Research and _destruction._" He corrects

Ah, well that... well if they've got to call it something then I suppose that's fine. However using a pre-existing acronym is going to confuse outsiders, then again, if that's the intention... fuck it! who knows with this lot, they're all unknown quantities, but she'll have to work with them, for now. She picks up some of the blueprints, they're all of an underground complex, the same complex. A holding cell and lab in the third floor down, weapons vaults and barracks kept one below it, what looks like common space and eating areas on the floor above, the first level has nothing, the basement of an old factory that had long since lost its purpose, except for hiding Hydra bases it would appear. There is a map included in the pack, apparently it's in Halifax, Canada. Smart choice, a port city with an airport, and a highway passing through, someone could be there, and then get anywhere else before anyone has a proper chance to block off all of their exit routes. Even the small towns littering the nearby coast, perfect locations to take out a skip and meet up with a larger boat and head south, or even to Europe.

There are two possible entrances, the route that the Hydra operatives themselves take, or alternatively take one of the supply shafts that run in from various locations through the city. Those all lead directly to the common space floor except for one which finishes at the labs, they can use that one to escape and enter, it's large enough for people to fit through, and there must be a cable system that they can use to climb it, or if they time it so that the cargo has just been dropped in that shaft they could ride the system up without having to do much, just watch out for ambushes at the other end.

"How accurate is this information?"

"As accurate as C's hacks and our informant's words, why?" They have a hacker, of course they have a hacker

"Take a look at this, see if you get the same idea as I did." He scans the map for a minute before his face lights up like he just won the lottery.

"Kōri, if you had to estimate from those photos, what would you say the structural integrity of that building is, the surface level part."

"No visible mould, no big trees in the area so there won't be problems with overgrown roots, according to the notes on the blueprints all the support columns are still standing."

"How many do you think it can afford to lose?"

"Maybe three or four per floor, so long as you don't wreck clusters in the same spot on multiple floors." And with the grin on his face he seems to like where this idea is going. "You thinking what I hope you're thinking there Chesca?" Note to self, full name is Carlos Chesca.

"I'm thinking that once Vasi and Ms. Romanov shut down their systems, the four of us blow the 'roof' off of their top sector, drop in and take out what's left before they get down to the labs, pick up our packages and scram up one of these delivery shafts before the ones in the bottom sector know what hit them."

After a few hours of discussion they had a plan, Runov would go down the shaft to the lab floor and secure its position there, she would then access the mainframe and shut down the cameras or at least loop them so that security couldn't direct people to the correct locations once the explosion went off. Natasha would arrive on the common floor and sneak down to the labs and find the head of the base, one Baron Von Stucker's office. According to the notes his private terminal had a function that would lock one section off from another, first step would be to lock off the lowest floor so that the men down there couldn't provide backup. She would collect as much intel as possible from the computer, and any hard copy notes in his office. Barton and Jasper 'Jazz' San Luca would both be sharing a night shift in 5 days time, so the strike would take place then, an added bonus would be that at night there should be less people awake in the common area to interfere with the mission. The mainframe should be able to unlock the cells for the twins, or they can destroy the cells, which are supposedly some form of reinforced glass. It turns out that the Maximoffs are a pair of teens, brother and sister Pietro and Wanda, both with rather strange abilities, incredible speed and some form of psychokinetic manipulation, though they keep referring to it as 'magic'. It's no wonder Hydra wanted them, their abilities have potential for many things, including terrifying levels of destruction.

The question is, what do _these_ people want them for, to help, to harm, or to use them?

* * *

While at the airport for a flight back to New York, Steve and Sam were just waiting on Tony to get back to them on the data stick, turns out it had been encrypted, and neither of them knew how to deal with that. The papers on the other hand were nearly all encrypted, or in a different language. Steve could translate some of the French, while Sam could read some Arabic, neither could read the Cyrillic text that took up most of the non encrypted files, and neither of them wanted to use an online translator, if there was a single typo in it, or if it was using code words, along with the general inaccuracy of those things, neither wanted to risk it, besides, they didn't have access to the right kind of keyboard anyway. Some of the codes were easy, substitution cyphers or Vigenere ciphers with the key word written on the page. Some were a bit more complex, such as the notes written as sheet music where certain groups of notes made for one letter, but the rules and conditions that determined what notes were actually part of the cipher were the kind that had to be memorised, fortunately Steve already knew this cipher.

"Well at least we have more proof that it's actually Schroedinger. Its his old cipher." He sighs, they couldn't read half of these papers to begin with.

"Well at least we can trust it a bit more right?" Ah, it's always good to have the optimist around

"True, but he keeps talking about this Red Room group, but most of it doesn't say who they are, just what they've done." And where, there were only a few sheets in that they could read, and they were just mission reports, nothing that would indicate where Bucky would head "I hope we can get something off of the that drive"

Not five seconds later did Steve's phone ring, with caller ID turning up as Tony, well, speak of the devil and he shall appear.

"Tony, you crack that drive yet?"

"No, I just wanted to hear the melodic sound of your voice." He deadpans over the line. "Please, you honestly think it was that difficult for me to crack? Give me _some_ credit. And boy are you going to like what I found."

"I'd like it a whole lot more if you just told me what you found."

"A lead, your old bingo buddy has a tracker in his arm, all you need to do is find what signal I've got to track and we'll know where he is, from Timbuktu to the Arctic Circle."

"Great, do you think you could tell me where to find said that information?"

"That, you may want to ask Natasha."

"What?"

"Says here that the guy who you need is up north in a Hydra compound, your buddy Schroedinger and his palls are sending a strike team up there to take him out, I'd say that you should try to get there first, but since these guys have already hired her for the job, it shouldn't be too far out of her way to get it, besides, shouldn't you get her to translate some of those papers?"

"Russian isn't the only language that uses Cyrillic Tony, but yeah we'll ask. Thanks for letting us know, we'll see you when we get there."

"Hey, at least this is more interesting than those board meetings Pep's been trying to drag me to." That poor woman, how ever does she put up with him.

"Bye Tony." Steve says, exasperated, but mildly amused, as the intercom announces the boarding for their flight

"Just don't be late Capsicle" Tony jabs as Steve shuts the phone and tosses it into the bin as he and Sam enter the line to board the flight.


	4. Chapter 4

I have got to get off of this base soon. I can only keep up this charade for so long, especially if these psychos ask me to do something that goes against moral code, like kill a civilian, or do something to those poor kids they had locked up in those cells on the lab floor. And I'm not the only one who doesn't like being here, though for this group of scum I think it's less of a moral dilemma and more of a personal one. The Baron's restricted communication for everyone now that Hydra has been exposed, no phones, no email, no regular mail, hell, we weren't even allowed to keep a pager, weird thing is that he actually confiscated a few, who the hell had those? NOT the point, I can't call Natasha, or Fury, well he's meant to be dead anyway (because I actually believed that, _right_), I'm stuck at enemy central and I can't call for any form of backup. Why the hell had Fury posted me here again, well rigged Pierce to post me here? And just letting Hydra have the sceptre, what if they figure out how to use it like Loki did, they wouldn't even need those hellicariers to keep people in line. Though I have to give Steve and 'Tasha, and whoever that third guy was points for taking out three hellicariers (Seriously, the press couldn't get anything on that guy, which means that he wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D, but he still had training for how to use fucking WINGS! WINGS!).

But still, I can't just _leave_ that thing there, especially not with the twins. I'll admit that they freak me out, just a little bit. But when the chick just floats and implodes stuff with no emotion (Seriously, the blank eyes are freaky) and the guy just spends all his time crashing into his cell walls, well until he passes out from either exhaustion or hunger, you have to worry about what's going on in their heads, and pray that it's not plans for world domination, I don't know about the boy, but if that girl figures out how to pull that trick with larger things (Say, _people, _or _buildings_) then she might actually have a fair shot at that. Granted neither of them matched the just plain disturbing-ness of the Baron, there was something, not quite right about that man, and the sooner me and those kids are out of his reach, the better.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, I would recognize those steel tipped army boots anywhere, if only because they're the _loudest footsteps in the whole base!_

"Here to check on the wonder twins boss-man?" Don't look him in the eye, the eye will suck out your soul (Not really, but the monocle isn't doing him any favors, nor is the baldness)

"Indeed I am operative Barton, though you would do better not to refer to them as such." A devil with a pole up his ass.

"Right, because they're going to do _so_ much within those cages." They expect the snarky assbutt, they get the snarky assbutt. Ahh, the perks of being undercover, well, when you're playing yourself anyway.

"But they will not always be _in_ the cages Barton, eventually we will find a way to, _persuade _them to our side, but I would not guarantee that they will not make a 'mistake' in the field." And there's the creepy, also, reason b. for them not getting the sceptre to work properly, wonder twins are dangerous, Hydra controlled wonder twins, well I might as well just turn myself in now. "But they are not the only reason I am down here." That is not a good tone, not a good tone at all, has he figured out I'm a spy? No wait he's turned to the tech guy, what was it, Jason, Jacob, James... srew it, it's J something, Shepard for the last name. One of those flunkies who believes everything that comes out of Hydra's mouth as if it was the word of God. Even if _God_ showed up on my doorstep and told me something, I would still check it out. I would also confirm whether or not said person was actually God but that's beside the point.

"I do believe that I gave all personnel the direct order to shut down all communications. That does include you."

"I-I'm sorry Sir, I was just sending one to my Wife because if I d-d-don't answer her calls she's going to think I'm dead in a ditch somewhere, o-or that I'm cheating on her, and she'd probably call the police, and maybe they'd ignore it at first, but in a few days if I still hadn't responded then she would actually have a case, and if my photo gets put in a BOLO and somebody recognises me from when I've been outside and the police show up here, and then the army might show up here, and that would ruin everything." Okay one, is this guy an idiot, because no matter how good he is at computers, nothing excuses the excessively flawed logic he just used, Even if his wife gets the police to actually investigate, they aren't going to send a BOLO all the way to _Canada_ (with his accent, mid south, west half, couldn't pinpoint a state though).

"You are an imbecile! No one has left this base in over a week, no one will remember you to recognize you! Close that infernal program and get back to work!"

"Y-yes sir, sorry sir."

"You are fortunate that we need the workers, for now." Well isn't that nice and ominous, just threaten the hapless idiot who would walk off a cliff for you. Seriously, evil masterminds have no sense of respect these days. "And YOU! Why did you not stop him?"

"With all due respect sir, I gave up on monitoring what these guys do on the computers, for all I know they're playing text based Galaga half the time." That was clearly not the answer he was looking for, so sue me, they type fast, I can read most of it, but it doesn't mean a whole lot. Though I suppose I'm lucky, he just gives my an angry glare and walks off, obnoxious shoes going the whole time.

...

...

"I cannot believe he actually bought that bullshit." He starts laughing quietly behind his hand.

...

One sec, let my brain reboot, the flunky said what? Also, British accent, that's new.

"What?"

"You're Hawkeye right?" He takes Hawkeye's bemused silence as admittance. "We've got an extraction team coming for us buddy, and it's coming soon, we'll be out of here, well not that there'll be much of a 'here' when the extraction's done" And he's rambling, great, dammit that smile is way to happy, is that a thing for smiles, they're so happy they become creepy? First question, is this guy sane, in the slightest? Because going on about extraction teams with a loopy grin on your face is one of the best ways to get tossed in the loony bin.

"Who are you and what have you done with the gullible little dumb-ass that was sitting here five seconds ago?" That gets him to straighten himself up a bit.

"Jasper San-Luca, Strike Team Mike." I have backup, why did Fury never tell me that I have BACKUP, seriously, it would have been nice to know.

"You're S.H.I.E.L.D.?" That would be great, if Fury's still got teams operating then...

"Nope" he retorts with a grin "I'm a Green eye" Green eye, the hell, what group is that, the only group I can think of is... nah, they don't exist.

"Your with the 'demons'?" He is joking right, please tell me he's joking, if this kid starts yelling about extraction plans in the middle of my shift I may actually just shoot him myself. "_Riiiiight_, I hate to break it to ya kid, but they're an urban legend, something made up to scare the rookies."

"Trust me on this Barton, we're as real as S.H.I.E.L.D. is, well, was."

"Then how come there are no traces, no hideouts, no bases, no paper-trails, no red-shirts getting caught and spilling the beans." Come on, no one's that good, there's always a trail, especially once people start looking, well once S.H.I.E.L.D. starts looking.

"Maybe because we don't plaster our name over everything. At most you'd find a common pattern of sigils in a few bunkers, assuming it's warded."

"And nobody's ever blabbed? Nobody's ever tried to gloat or got tortured into talking." Come on, no organisation has _that_ kind of infinite loyalty

"Doesn't matter if you talk if no one's going to believe you." I guess that would maybe work, for about the first maybe two times before people start paying attention. I still think this guy's probably crazy, I need to get out of here, soon.

* * *

**So yeah, first person POV, how about that. Hawkeye is the only one I feel comfortable doing it for.**

**Don't expect this again anytime soon, I only wrote 1st person because forcing 3rd person was annoying me.**


	5. Chapter 5

Tony, was annoyed, very annoyed. He knew from the start that the drive had been too easy to crack, but what he found afterwards was just giving him a migraine. He thought that maybe it would have been a good idea to see what had been on the drive before, you know, find a small fragment or two to see what other interests these people had. Steve may trust the Schrödinger guy, but Tony's not about to trust some guy he's never even met, especially if he's supposed to be dead. What he found on the drive, was going to be BIG, he could feel it in his no-longer-squashed-by-an-arc-reactor bones. But whatever it was, he would have to isolate it first. He had found the file remnant on the drive, but the second he had tried to access it, it transmitted _something_ onto his computer. He and Jarvis had been trying for the past half hour to isolate the, whatever it was (File/program/image/link/virus) so they could evaluate it. But it just kept jumping every other second to a completely new directory, sometimes it just flat-out made its own directory and shuffled _his_ stuff around to mess with him. If he didn't know better he'd say it was intelligent or something.

"Sir, perhaps you should take a break" J.A.R.V.I.S. intones from the speakers, "I can track the data and fix anything it changes."

"Don't worry Jarv, I've nearly got this thing cornered." he waves off the A.I.'s concern.

"Sir, you have been working for nearly 11 hours now and the socially accepted time frame for dinner passed a few hours ago, you did promise Ms. Potts that you would take breaks and she requested that I ensure you have at least two regular meals, the data will still be here when you return." J.A.R.V.I.S. reprimands as though repeating an old conversation, in truth, he probably was.

"Ten more minutes Jarvis, I've got it on the ropes here." Tony elects to ignore J.A.R.V.I.S.'s advice, or perhaps did not fully hear it as his attention was placed solely on the streams of data displayed on the multitude of holographic screens in front of him.

"Sir, if you do not stop I will be forced to implement protocol 4-1-delta, as per your own orders." meaning an immediate shutdown of all the lab facilities, as well as the involvement of Butterfingers to corral Tony to the elevator where he would be directed to his floor. Not something either of them wanted to repeat as it had resulted in the birth of the foul-mouthed alarm-clock by the name of Verna.

"Why did I make that one again?"

"So that you would not accidentally anger Ms. Potts by breaking your word that you at least attempt to look after yourself during her absence."

"Riiiiight." He though the word as if to delay the inevitable. "So, food, coffee, back to work, simple enough."

"Don't forget that Mr. Rogers and Mr. Wilson will be arriving within the half hour, sir."

"Wait, what time is it?"

"Eight Forty-Five, the flight arrived early."

"Well damn, guess I should probably be presentable or something." Or something would about sum up the situation. With trousers and shirt either stained or torn by grease and sharp edges, combined with the not-currently-hidden bags under his eyes, Tony could definitely use some freshening up. "Open a line to Bruce, would ya Jarv?"

"Right away sir"

"Yo Big Green, what ya doing?"

"Fortunately for you, nothing potentially explosive, did you even ask J.A.R.V.I.S. if I was?"

"Rest assured Dr. Banner, had you been doing anything that could have resulted in any form of incident, I would have refused the connection until you had finished." J.A.R.V.I.S. intones from the speakers.

"Thank you J.A.R.V.I.S. at least one of you thinks before acting." Banner teases through the intercom, "What did you want Tony?"

"Caps going to be visiting the tower soon, he's bringing a buddy."

"I'll be up in ten Tony." A light click signals the end of the connection.

Tony takes one last look at the screens before setting them to 'sleep'. On his way out he grabs a few old coffee mugs and glasses died green by their contents.

The elevator moves to his floor without prompting and Tony leaves it just as silently. Placing the cups in a nearby sink, he stumbles over to the bathroom in silence, fatigue making the familiar trip harder than it should have been.

* * *

Bruce Banner had only visited the tower briefly after Tony's confrontation with A.I.M. but his most recent stay may just turn out to be permanent. After S.H.I.E.L.D. fell he lost the only known faction of the government that wasn't trying to capture or kill him, and people like Ross now had a new form of justification to come after him. Tony had offered to protect him in the tower, and Bruce had to admit, the lab was like his own personal candyland, even if some of his work to get rid of the hulk went missing every once in a while. He supposes that it's just Tony's way of caring, but really, Bruce would rather be prepared. The one downside was that he couldn't go out without a disguise and a guard, which meant that he didn't get out much, really it was only Pepper's insistence that both he and Tony took in some 'fresh air' (or as fresh as it gets in New York) every once in a while, Tony was more than happy to putz around in the lab and avoid the city, he probably doesn't think that Bruce has noticed but the way he flinches every once in a while when he's reminded of where he is, Bruce isn't sure why he stays, he knows it hurts him, Tony was able to somewhat admit it himself in that impromptu 'therapy session' that they had a while back.

Wandering out of his lab he heads for the common floor where he knows they will all convene, or at least where Tony will show up, Steve's never stayed at the tower for any significant length of time, so Bruce is just hoping that he remembers the place. It would be interesting to see Steve again, however Bruce hoped that his friend Wilson didn't buy the army's tales about Bruce, they certainly wouldn't make for a good first impression. When he reaches the common floor he is not however expecting a very angry security officer waiting at the entrance as he steps out.

"Tell Stark that the next time he lets a sociopathic A.I. into the building I'm going to lock him out for a month." With that the very disgruntled employee thrusts some sort of containment sphere into Bruce's hands and storms into the closing elevator doors.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., who was that, and what was that about an A.I.?"

"That was Ms. Rickman, and it would appear that she has just solved a rather pesky problem."

"A problem with a rogue A.I.?"

"During his investigation of the contents of the data drive that Mr. Rogers had received from the people that Ms. Romanoff is currently working with, he accidentally triggered a program that started wreaking havoc upon the tower's systems. The objects you currently hold would explain why Sir was not able to isolate it for removal, combined with the anomalous analysis of the original program, I believe this would indicate that the program that sir triggered only allowed allowed the hardware to interact with our systems, physically ejecting itself as necessary when it was located."

As if to prove J.A.R.V.I.S.'s theory, the small mass within the containment pod began to move, spreading across the inner surface in search for a vulnerability to utilize.

"Well that's not good. Did it do anything permanent?"

"Did what do anything permanent?"

"The 'program' from earlier sir, it would appear that Ms. Rickman was able to locate it's physical host."

"That's no program J, hell... are those nanobots?"

"It would appear so sir."

"Alrighty, those need to go to the lab, to be analysed." He continues, snatching the pod from Bruce's hands

"After Sir has eaten." J.A.R.V.I.S. prompts from the speakers, causing Bruce to laugh quietly into the back of his hand when Tony freezes halfway to the elevator to return to his lab.

"Right." He mutters under his breath and storms towards the kitchenette-snack house-thingamajig that had been set up, no oven, but it was equipped with a small burner, microwave, toaster and no less than two coffee machines at any given time. He starts to put together a sandwich, ham, cheese and pickles, when he suddenly he exclaims "I get it J.A.R.V.I.S., you don't need to be a nag!"

"Uh, Tony, J.A.R.V.I.S didn't say anything." Bruce hesitantly points out.

Tony stares at him for a few seconds before glancing up at the ceiling in confusion, giving up he drags a hand over his face,

"Sorry J, I must be more tired than I thought, I could have sworn I heard you say something." and with that he picks up the sandwich and walks back to the hall with the elevators. "Tell Spangles and Wilson that I'll see them in the morning" he calls out just before he turns the corner.

"Any idea what that was about J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"While it is true that sir has only had 3 hours sleep in the past 57, it is irregular for him to have outbursts such as that one."

...

"And while it may have been a coincidence, just before his outburst, I had been processing the concept that if we could only get him to eat lunch too, Ms. Potts and I wouldn't need to worry so much that he was eating enough."

* * *

**So yeah, not dead. Tad O' writers block. I've gone back and edited some of the old chapters, nothing major just a few touchups.**

**Also, cookie to those who know where I'm going with this scene (If you've read the comics, you'll probably get this.)**


End file.
